


Take the Picture

by Stardustfusion



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M, Photography, Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-21
Updated: 2012-07-30
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stardustfusion/pseuds/Stardustfusion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Watson works for a magazine company as a writer and is partnered with the freelance photographer Sherlock Holmes. They're sent on a job to travel around the world and document different things happening in the world. Things get a little bumpy while they're on the job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting the partner

John Watson rubbed his face and dropped his pen. He finally finished the article he had been working on for the past two weeks. He didn’t know writing about Turkish restaurants popping up was going to take so long. He stretched his back and smiled down at his work. He grabbed the pile of papers and made his way to his boss’s office.

  
“Watson,” someone yelled behind him, “what are you doing here so early?”

  
John spun around and noticed Sarah was at her desk. “Don’t you mean so late?” he asked. “I’ve been here all night trying to finish my article. What are you doing here so early?”

  
“Lestrade called us in,” she informed him. “We got a meeting about upcoming jobs.”

  
John nodded looked at the door to Lestrade’s office. “Well, I should be getting this in,” he told her. He smiled and turned away. He had a bit of a crush on her, had ever since he started working with the magazine firm. He knocked on the door and heard the muffled sound of his boss on the other end. He opened the door and peered inside. “Lestrade, I got the Turkish article.”

  
“John,” Lestrade cheered, “come in I want to talk with you. I noticed you here earlier but I didn’t want to bother you while you were working. I want to offer you a huge job. Shut the door please.”

  
John shut the door and sat down in the chair across from the silvered haired man. “I thought we were handing out the jobs at the meeting?” he joked. “Am I that special?”

  
“Actually, I want to offer you this job first because you’re more opened minded about people,” Lestrade admitted. “Also, you’re one of my best writers; it would be a shame to not offer you this job. Plus if you take it you’ll be starting tomorrow.”

  
John was starting to feel anxious. “If you don’t mind me asking you to get to point Lestrade,” he laughed nervously.

  
Lestrade laughed along and nodded. “Well, our magazine’s tenth birthday will be coming up by the end of the year and I want to do something big,” he explained. “That’s why I want to send you and the photographer Sherlock Holmes around the world to document the people, the places, anything that seems interesting.”

“You want me to work on this?” John questioned. “Why, you could have easily gotten Anderson or someone else who has been working with you since the beginning?” He was honored to be offered the job but he really didn’t think he was the right person. “I’m definitely not your best writer.”

  
Lestrade made a face and shook his head. “Anderson’s okay, but not as good as you,” he told him. “He also won’t work with Sherlock Holmes. They always get at each other’s throats whenever they’re in the same room.”

  
“Who is this Holmes guy?” John asked.

  
“You don’t know who he is?” Lestrade questioned. “Almost everyone in the business does. He’s a freelance photographer that sometimes works for larger companies like ours.”

  
John nodded and looked around the office. He would love to take the job, but he had to see this Sherlock Holmes fellow. “You said I would be starting tomorrow?” he asked him. Lestrade nodded. “I would like to talk to Sherlock before I make my decision if you don’t mind.”

  
“Not at all,” Lestrade said. He picked up his phone and dialed a number. “Sherlock, I found you a person a writer.”

  
John watched as the man talked on the phone. He heard him tell Mr. Holmes what John looked like before hanging up. “Alright,” he huffed, “he said to meet him at the coffee shop down the street.”

  
John sat up and gave him a weird look. “That’s it,” he asked, “I just go there and meet him?”

  
“He said he would be there in five,” Lestrade told him. “You might want to hurry up.”

  
John let out a puff of air before nodding. He waited one more beat before he pushed himself off the chair. “I’ll be at the coffee shop,” he told him as if he didn’t know.

  
X

  
John tapped the table as he stared down in to his mug. He had been waiting for about a half an hour for Sherlock Holmes and he had no clue if he showed up or not. The waitress came over and asked if he would like another cup of coffee. He declined; if he had anymore he would have to make a trip to the bathroom, he didn’t want to miss the person he was waiting for.

  
“John Watson,” a deep voice sounded behind him.

  
John turned and paused. “You must be Sherlock Holmes,” he said back. He looked him over quickly. He was tall, pale, and had a mop of dark curls on his head. His face looked sharp and his eyes seemed like they were looking right through him.

  
“Yes, sorry I’m late,” he said as he sat down. “I was seeing if you would leave if I didn’t show up for a while.”

  
“I passed then?” he asked. Sherlock moved his head side to side before nodding. “Well, that’s good I guess. Mr. Holmes, I wanted to know more about you before I made my decision to travel the world with you.”

  
“Please call me Sherlock,” Sherlock told him. “It’s perfectly understandable. I play the violin when I’m thinking, you’ll hear it a lot when we’re in the hotel, and I tend not to speak for days on end. Potential work colleagues should know the worst about each other."

  
John nodded as he took that in. “I don’t do any of that,” he told him. “I’m just a normal bloke.”

  
“Indeed you are,” Sherlock said. He placed his hands flat on the table. “We’ll be hitting every continent so I suggest you pack for any type of weather, but you should also pack light.” He looked at his watch and stood up. “I should get going; I still got packing to do. I’ll meet you tomorrow at your headquarters.”

  
John stood up too and grabbed Sherlock’s sleeve. “I never said I was going,” he told him.

  
“You didn’t need to tell me,” Sherlock smirked. “I could tell that you wanted to go the moment I looked at you. You like London but you’re itching to go somewhere. You think some time away from your brother will also help to clear the air between you two. Maybe you have a problem with his drinking or you really liked his wife, but he did give you his phone, maybe he wants to patch things up. I can also tell you that your therapist wants you to take a vacation from work. I think that's enough to go on, don't you think?" He raised his eyebrows at John's, challenging his reasoning. When he didn't get a reply he said, "Anyway, got to dash, I think I left the oven on.”

  
John was left standing in the middle of the shop with his mouth hanging open. He shook himself out of his stupor and grabbed his phone from the table. He quickly dialed Lestrade’s number. “Greg Lestrade’s office,” his voice came through.

  
“Did you tell him anything about me?” John questioned.

  
“Like what?” Lestrade asked.

  
“About Harry, my therapist, anything?” John asked.

  
Lestrade chuckled. “No, I didn’t tell him anything about you,” he told him. “He didn’t scare you off did he?”

  
“Of course not,” John stated, “I’m leaving for my journey tomorrow.”

  
“Good,” Lestrade said, “I’m glad.”

  
John said bye and hung up. He shook his head; he could imagine Sherlock was going to be the death of him.


	2. Meeting the Family

John doubled checked his bags making sure he had everything he would need for his journeys. He was proud of himself for being able to fit everything in to one duffle bag. He had a smaller bag for his laptop and other things he was going to need for work. He ruffled through his pockets making sure he had his phone and his keys, which he was going to drop off at his landlord’s before he left. He promised to send money when the rent was do so he would lose his flat.  
He made sure to call his therapist the night before. He told her that he was going on a trip and that he wouldn’t be able to make some of his appointments. He told her he didn’t know when he was going to be back, he would call her when he needed his next appointment. She was proud of him; she told him that he should take as long as he wanted to. She didn’t know that it was for work and John didn’t think she needed to know that. She also told him that if he needed to talk that he should call her at a moment’s notice. He assured her that he would.  
He quickly looked around his small flat. It looked cold, the walls were bare, the only things he had were the basic essentials that he needed to live off. He was hoping to bring something back to liven it up a bit. He wanted pictures, and little trinkets from shops. It would definitely make him want to go home more often.  
He shut off all the lights and locked the door on his way out. He jogged down the steps to his landlord’s door and knocked on it lightly. It was only seven in the morning and he made sure someone was up so he wouldn’t wake them up. He waited just a second before the door was opened; it was Timothy the landlord’s son. “Hey Tim,” John said happily. “I’m just here to drop off my key.”  
Tim’s face dropped. “You’re moving out?” he asked. He looked absolutely heartbroken. “No, you’re the only one around here that actually talks to me, you can’t leave.”  
John laughed and told him, “I’m only going on a trip.” The kid’s face relaxed. “But I will be gone for a long time. I don’t know how long though, I’m traveling around the world.”  
“Cool,” Tim said. “Can you bring me a souvenir?”  
John handed him the key and nodded. “Of course I can,” he told him. “See you later.”  
“Good bye Mr. Watson,” Tim called after him as John left the building.  
As he stepped on the sidewalk he looked up at the sky. It was bucking to be such a beautiful day. The sky was blue and for once wasn’t threatening to pour rain down on all of them. He was brought back down to earth when a car horn sounded off in front of him. He shook his head and hailed a taxi. He climbed in to the back seat and settled down.  
X  
John pushed open the door to his office floor and paused as everyone turned to look at him. He smiled towards them and continued on to his desk. He placed his bags down by his desk and tapped his fingers against the wood.  
“A bit anxious are we?” Sarah asked.  
John leaned back in his chair and smiled up at her. “I just want to get going, you know?” he told her. “I love traveling, my parents refused to tell me when we were going on vacation because I would throw fits because I couldn’t handle the wait.”  
Sarah laughed loudly. “Mike’s the same way,” she told him.  
John’s smile faltered a little but he kept it up. Mike was Sarah’s long time boyfriend. He didn’t like the man much. “That’s nice,” he said.  
“Watson,” Lestrade yelled from his office door. John turned and looked at him. “You have a phone call.” He held out his mobile and motioned him to his office.  
John gave him a weird look but stood. He walked over to his boss and took the phone from his hands. He was ushered inside the office with the door shut behind him. “Hello?” he asked calmly.  
“Hello Mr. Watson,” a male voice came from the other end.  
John looked over at Lestrade before saying, “Who is this?”  
“I would like to speak with you,” the man said completely ignoring the question.  
“You are speaking with me,” John answered dryly.  
“There’s a car waiting outside for you,” he told him.  
John walked over to the window and saw a black car waiting at the front of the building. “What if I don’t want to go?” he asked.  
“Then I would have to threaten you,” the man stated coolly, “and I don’t want to do that.”  
The line went dead. John looked back at Lestrade with a blank expression on his face. He flipped the phone shut and handed it back to his boss. “I’ll be back,” he told him as he ran out of the building.  
X  
John walked over to the black car where a man dressed as a chauffeur was standing waiting for him. John looked up and down the sidewalk before getting in the car. It might not have been his best decision he ever made but he wanted to see the man face to face.  
When he slid in to his seat he noticed a pretty woman sitting next to him with her blackberry out. He cleared his throat and said, “So, what’s your name?”  
The woman looked up from her phone. “Uh,” she hesitated, “Anthea.”  
John nodded and looked out the window. He thought it was a pretty name. “Is that your real name?” he questioned.  
Anthea’s eyes slip from her phone over to John. “No,” she said with amusement.  
“I’m John Watson,” he informed her, “it’s my real name.”  
“I know,” she told him.  
John licked his lips and placed his hands in his lap. He figured a conversation with her would get him nowhere. He decided to keep quiet and watch the world go by.  
X  
They reached their destination, which John wasn’t surprised at all to see that it was a dark musky warehouse. He looked over at Anthea and she was ignoring him completely so he decided he had to get out. He saw a cliché dark figure using an umbrella to keep him from falling. John stared at him for a second before walking closer to him. “You know,” he said, “you could have called me on my phone. I know it’s all mysterious using another person’s phone to call me and all but that was my boss, he could have fired me. So next time you want me just call me, on my phone, I do know how to use it.”  
“I had to get your attention,” the man told him.  
John stopped about five feet in front of him. “For what?” he asked.  
“I’m willing to offer you some money,” he stated with a smile.  
“Why?” John questioned.  
“Because you’re not a wealthy man,” he said.  
John licked his lips and cocked his head to the side. “In exchange for what, exactly?” he inquired.  
“You met a man,” he told him, “Sherlock Holmes. You met him yesterday; you’re now going on a trip with him.”  
John nodded. “It’s for work,” he told him, “but you’re correct. But what do you want me to do.”  
“I want you to inform me on what Sherlock does,” he told him.  
“Why?” John asked. “Are you his friend?”  
The man laughed. “How many friends do you think he has?” he asked. “No, he would think more of me as an enemy than a friend.”  
“Then why do you want me to spy on him?” John asked.  
John could see the man’s jaw clenched. “I worry about him,” he told him in a serious tone, “constantly.”  
John swallowed and nodded. He looked away from the man before shaking his head. “I may not be a wealthy man but I’m not going to do your dirty work,” he told him. His phone beeped and he pulled it out of his pocket.  
Come to 221 B Baker Street if convenient –SH  
It took John a second to figure out what SH stood for. He dropped the phone back in his pocket and looked up at the well dressed man. “Can I go now?” he asked, jabbing his thumb towards the car.  
“Your therapist thinks you’re traumatized by the fire you were involved in earlier this year,” he started. John instantly tensed up. “You should fire her, she got it wrong. You’re not traumatized by it. You live for moments like that.”  
“Who are you?” John interjected. He stopped himself from saying any more. Yesterday he thought he had things in his life that were secrets, now he wasn’t so sure.  
“At the age of twenty-three you stopped a mugging from happening, that man had a gun didn’t he? At twenty-six you carried your friend on your back thirty miles to the nearest hospital,” the man listed. “It seems you are drawn towards heroic daring things.”  
John’s phone beeped again and he pulled it out.  
If inconvenient come anyway –SH  
He let his hand fall to his side. “Am I keeping you from something?” the man asked.  
“No,” John whispered harshly.  
The man nodded and stepped closer to John. “I’ll ask again,” he told him, “how is your side?”  
John licked his lips and clenched his hand at his side. “Better,” he said in a sharp tone.  
“Good,” he said with a smile. He turned and started walking away, swinging his umbrella with every step. “Have a good day Mr. Watson.”  
John nodded and spun around to face the car. Anthea was waiting for him outside of the car. “I’m here to take you back,” she told him. “The address?”  
John glanced down at his phone and started for the vehicle. “Uh, 221 B Baker Street,” he said, “but we have to go somewhere first.”  
X  
John pulled his bags out of the car and looked up at the building in front of him. He was about to turn around and say something to Anthea but they were already driving away. He walked up to the door and knocked on it.  
The door swung open and a little old woman was standing on the other end. “Can I help you?” she asked.  
“I’m here to see Sherlock Holmes,” he told her.  
The woman laughed before nodding. “Of course, you must be John Watson,” she told him. “I’m Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock’s right upstairs.”  
“Thank you,” John told her as he walked past her and up the steps. He saw an open door and poked his head through it to see if it was the right one. It was, he saw Sherlock lying on the couch with his arm curled up. He stepped in and asked, “What are you doing?”  
Sherlock’s arm uncurled to show off three circles on his arm. “Nicotine patches,” he explained, “they help me think.”  
“Three of them?” John questioned.  
Sherlock sat up and launched himself from the sofa and over the coffee table. “It’s a three patch problem,” he told him like it was nothing.  
“You texted me,” John told him, “telling me to meet you here.”  
“Oh yes,” Sherlock said, “I need you to call the car company for me.”  
John pursed his lips before looking out the window. “I was half way across London,” he almost shouted. “You want me to call the car company?”  
“There was no hurry,” Sherlock told him. “I have to pack my cameras and develop some pictures before we leave.”  
“The car company?” John questioned.  
Sherlock waved his fingers towards the table. “The number’s over there,” he told him.  
John grabbed the number off the table and started dialing the number. “I met a friend of yours earlier,” he told the other man as he waited for someone to answer.  
“A friend?” Sherlock asked in surprise.  
John turned to look at him and saw that he was actually serious. “Well, he said you would call him an enemy,” he said.  
“Oh,” Sherlock’s face relaxed. “Did he offer you money?”  
“Yes,” John told him.  
“Did you take it?”  
“No.”  
Sherlock sighed and walked over to a door. “Pity, we could have split the fee,” he told him, “think it through next time.” He disappeared through the door leaving John to deal with the company.


	3. Your genius is showing

John tapped his fingers against his leg lightly as he and Sherlock sat in the back of a cab. They were on their way to pick up the rental car John was forced to order. He sat looking out the window, occasionally glancing at Sherlock. Thousands of questions were buzzing through his head. He wanted to ask them but it Sherlock was doing something on his phone and he didn’t want to bother him. If he somehow got on the wrong end of the man then their whole trip together would be ruined. 

“You got questions,” Sherlock stated simply. 

John mulled over the words for a second before decided it would be best just to get everything in the open. “Who was the man I met earlier?” he asked. 

“You don’t need to care about him,” Sherlock answered. “Hopefully you’ll never see him again.” 

John nodded; he wasn’t going to pry anymore about that one. “Then how did you know all those things about me?” he inquired.   
Sherlock smirked. “I didn’t know,” he told him, “I observed, it’s what most people fail to do in their everyday lives.”

“But how?” John questioned. “How could you know…observe all that?”

“I noticed when you walked in to the shop that you didn’t look nervous,” he explained. “As you waited you fiddled with your phone for a bit but you were anxious for me to arrive. That shows that you were willing to take the job no matter how our meeting turned out. You’re a journalist that doesn’t mind getting down and dirty to get whatever story you’re after, ever since your injuries you’re work was no longer about the interesting things going around London, but the prime spots in London you need to eat at. You’re bored that’s why you want this job so much. Unfortunately your previous boss saw that boredom as depression and suggested you go see a therapist.” 

“How do you know that?” John cut in.

“I saw you scratch your side throughout your time in the coffee shop, Sherlock told him. “When it wouldn’t go away you raised your shirt a bit to get at it better. I noted that you had a scar that was caused by a third degree burn. It looked big from what I saw, so you must have been involved in a large fire. I remembered the block of flats that burned down at the beginning of the year. I remember your name being in the headlines as the man who saved four people. You were involved in an event that usually effects a person badly, its simple logic someone would force you in to therapy. Same way I know you have a brother and despite his drinking problem’s he wanted to patch things up by giving you his phone.” He held out his hand expectantly, John reached in to his pocket so he could hand his phone over. “The first indication that this was your brother’s phone was the engraving on the back, ‘Harry Watson –From Clara XXX’. The name Harry Watson gives way that this was another family member’s phone before it was yours. I doubt it was a cousin’s or an uncle’s, they wouldn’t give up a phone like this to someone out of the immediate family so someone in your immediate family. Not your father, this is a young man’s gadget so your brother it is. But who’s Clara? The triple ‘x’ says romantic relationship; the expense of the phone says wife not girl friend, the model of the phone is only a few months old. If he’s giving away the phone it means the marriage ended, if she left him he would have kept the phone, so he left her. He wanted a stronger relationship with you, and handed over the phone. Now, on to his problems with the drink, you see the charger port here?” 

John leaned in closer to look at what he was pointing at. “I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he admitted.

“Tiny little scuffmarks around the edges,” Sherlock told him. “Every night he goes to plug in his phone but his hands shakes too much, you never see them on a sober mans phone, never see a drunk’s without them.” 

John stared at him with his mouth slightly open. “That was incredible,” he let out. 

Sherlock looked away then back at the other man. “You think so?” he questioned.

“Of course,” John told him, “it was extraordinary.”

“People don’t normally say that,” Sherlock informed him.

John frowned. “What do people normally say?” he asked.

“Piss off,” Sherlock stated coolly. John started laughing, causing Sherlock to join in also. 

X

They arrived at the car company shortly after Sherlock unraveled John’s life. John paid the driver and followed behind Sherlock as he stalked to the office. “Did I get anything wrong?” he asked over his shoulder. 

John thought for a second. “I do see a therapist, I am bored with my life, and Harry is a drinker,” he told him. “I received the phone as a gift a few weeks ago as a peace offering.”  
“Spot on,” Sherlock complimented himself. “I didn’t expect to get everything right.” 

John glanced at him before saying, “Harry is short for Harriet.”

Sherlock stopped dead in his tracks. “Harry is your sister,” he cursed. “Your sister, I knew there had to be something.” 

John shook his head. “Let’s just get going,” he told him. “Where are we going first?” He forgot he didn’t know much of their plan for the trip around the world. 

Sherlock had a bit of a pout on his face but he continued on. “We’re going to get England out of the way first, that way we don’t have to worry about the official deadline in the same country we have to report to.” 

John shrugged his shoulders. “That makes sense,” he told him. 

“Of course it does,” Sherlock said. “We can pop up to Scotland then over to Ireland so we can just get them over with.”

“You don’t seem to enthusiastic about this job,” John pointed out. “Why did you take it on if you don’t really want to do it?”

“Boredom does things to people John,” Sherlock told him seriously. “If the world can’t help stimulate my brain then I’ll just take measures in to my own hands.”

John scrunched up his face in confusion; he wasn’t sure what Sherlock really meant. He shrugged it off and just followed him to their new car for a couple of weeks.


End file.
